Commercial and residential property owners and managers often erect fences to define property boundaries, obtain privacy, and restrict movement of people and animals onto and off of the property. The most common types of fences are chain link fences and wooden board fences. Both fence types typically include fence posts that are secured into the ground at regularly spaced intervals, with the fence built between posts and above ground.
Trimming grass, weeds, and other vegetation along the base of a fence can be difficult and time consuming, since lawnmowers cannot access vegetation that grows underneath or immediately adjacent to a fence. This requires additional maintenance of vegetation near and/or under the fence to maintain a tidy appearance and encourages the use of herbicides and/or power tools such as weed trimmers, both of which have undesirable environmental effects. Further, for chain link or other open fences, grass and weeds can grow up through the fence material, making the vegetation particularly difficult to remove.
Another problem facing property owners is that there are limitations to how close to the ground a fence can be placed, particularly when the ground is not perfectly level. When the ground is uneven, gaps beneath the fence can allow animals and pets to pass under the fence, leading to undesired access or egress.
One solution to these problems is to install a vegetation barrier under the fence, which may also act as a barrier to cover any gaps between the bottom of the fence and the ground surface. There are a number of patents and products that provide a barrier to vegetation along a fence bottom. For examples see: US20050279981, U.S. Pat. No. 2,826,393, U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,351, U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,373, U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,004, U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,096, U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,864, U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,747, U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,980, U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,989, U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,391, U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,472, U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,388, U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,175, U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,382, U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,947, U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,065, U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,369, U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,541, U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,753, U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,374, U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,323, U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,819, U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,487, U.S. Pat. No. 8,272,624, U.S. Pat. No. D342,874, U.S. Pat. No. D343,774, U.S. Pat. No. D558,903, WO2004003319, MOWSTRIP® fence underlay marketed by Mowstrip in Fargo, N. Dak. available at www.mowstrip.com, and WEEDSEAL® fence and border guard marketed by Bruckman Rubber Co. in Hastings, Nebr., available at www.weedseal.com.
While each of these products serves a purpose, there remains a desire for an under-fence vegetation barrier that is economical, effective, easy to install, flexibly adaptable to different fence types and layouts, and that allows for expansion and contraction during freeze-thaw cycles.